Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Have been really consistent with training and the job hunt, (even doing some consulting in the meantime), but that hasn't left much time for blog posts!
Quick recap of the last week (or two?)
- New shoes arrived in the mail (woo!) Didn't realize how bad my old ones had been pounded down!
- Almost had my calf chomped off by a dog-- the owner had him sit as we went by, but didn't pay close enough attention, and SNAP! inches from my calf. Not so bad, until I turn around, and he's giving the dog a treat! RAGE!!
- Same run a above, I pointed out a pile of (garter) snakes sunning themselves on some rocks to Nicole: cute little scream and she sure picked up the pace!
- New Adamo saddle on my bike, thought it was good, but I think it cuts off circulation. I'll save it for when I have a tri bike.

So last night was bootcamp night at the Running Room. It was a ton of fun, but we were crammed under the gazebo to stay out of the rain... I managed to strain my elbow doing pushups, and my pace buddy fell twice playing tag-- the second time, he slipped and hit hit head on a bench, and opened up a cut right next to his eye! He's gonna have a real shiner!!!

The good thing about my "tennis elbow" was that I had great conversation with the guest trainer afterwards, and learned a lot about where my muscle imbalances are, and how to improve my posture. I sort of know about these things, but when you talk to someone knowledgeable about them, you're that much more aware, and are more able to make changes!

Friday, July 9, 2010

I don't know if it's the nice weather, or what, but I'm really loving riding my bike lately. True, I'm feeling the pressure of the 90km ride at the Calgary 70.3 Half-IM, but when I do get out on the road, I feel so FAST!

Here's a couple of recent rides: home from Chestermere, and home from Edworthy Park after a few hill repeats:

Then I watch the Tour de France, and those guys are so much faster than me! Still, it would be awesome to ride in the Tour... even as a domestique (the guys who do all the work to help the guys like Lance win). It's gotta be a tough job- riding 3-4 hours a day, plus warmup and cooldown, for three weeks, plus all the bumps and crashes, but man, it would be incredible to be a part of that. Sadly, I'm already too old to get into it (and really, I'm not THAT fast!) Those guys average 40-50km an hour, and that's my TOP speed!

Top 5 tour moments so far:

5. Crash coming down the last descent on Stage 2 (!)... not pleased that people crashed, but to see the look on Andy Schleck's face, I would have bet money that he'd snapped his collarbone, and he just gets back on and rides back into the field. Heroic.
4. Sylvain Chavanel's breakaway ride on Stage 2 to bring the Maillot Jaune into France on the shoulders of a Frenchman. Great ride.
3. Allez-Jet (Allessandro Petacchi)'s sprint finish on Stage 1... although it was kind of marred by the fact that Cavendish, Freire, Farrar, and others all crashed before the final sprint, he showed it wasn't a fluke by winning the sprint again against a mostly intact field at Stage 4
2. The crazy lead-out on Stage 5... and Mark Cavendish, the Manx Missile's first stage win of the year. I was rooting for Tyler Farrar of Garmin, who had a great lead-out, but tried to sneak to the outside instead of coming inside to get in the slipstream of Cavendish... he might have had a chance?
1. Ryder Hesjedal's herculean ride over the cobbles to ALMOST take stage 3... I don't know how long it's been since a Canadian won a Tour stage, but I was in agony when he got caught. Still, he finished 4th, and got himself into 4th place in the GC. Is he going to be the new team leader for Garmin, now that Christian VandeVelde is out? Doubtful, because he's such a big guy (like me, but skinny), that he probably doesn't have much hope though the Alps. :( I'm still cheering for him! Maybe he'll find another break and get that stage win?

The job situation is starting to come together, too-- I spent all last week doing some consulting for a good friend. It's contagious when someone gets re-excited about their business, and I'm glad I could help him! It's also looking like I should be able to sort out something permanent by the end of this week-- keep your fingers crossed.

About PaddlePedalPlod

Paddle (Swim) Pedal (Bike) Plod (Run) is a personal blog, my quest for fitness as training for triathlon. Nothing commits one to a goal more than making it "public", and nothing is more public than a blog! In the past, I have trained with the University of Calgary Triathlon Club (UCTC) , and with the Shawnessy YMCA group, but right now I'm mostly running with the Country Hills Running Room Half-Marathon group. This Triathlon/ Running thing is really starting to become a lifestyle- everything starts to revolve around it...